Good News, Bad News

Well, I don't know if you would call it BAD news, just 'not what I wanted to hear' news. Having said that, the bad news first. Looks like Carter will need a second round of treatment. Meaning, once our 12 weeks (we are currently in our 6th week) in this band are up we will have to get a second one. *insert big sigh here* So, in 2 weeks at our next appointment, Carter will need to have more digital photos like the ones I posted here. Those will show how far he has come and how much farther we have yet to go. Then we start the whole process of getting insurance approval. Looks like we will be waiting to hear back from the insurance company while we are in Oklahoma over the July 4th holiday. The new photos have to be taken 4 weeks before the end of this initial treatment because it usually takes the insurance company a week to 2 weeks to come back with approval. As soon as that is sorted out we have to get a new DSI (3-D digital imaging of Carter's head) and then it takes 2 weeks to get a new DOC Band made for him. I'm not sure I can do the decorating myself the second time. I was stressed about it the first time and as cute as it turned out, I'm not sure I can do that again. I know it sounds silly, but I assigned a lot of weight to it turning out cute. Silly, I know.

Now, the good news. We are seeing a LOT good growth. The bottom half of his skull is rounding out nicely. You can actually see suture marks where the growth starts and that's great. His asymmetry is improving as well. Carter has a sloping forehead. It still slopes but the initial point of the slope has moved forward. I see an improvement in his right ear, which always curled out more than the left. I had always thought it was a birth defect, but the plagiocephaly had pushed one ear forward of the other and was causing his 'Stephen Colbert ear' as I liked to call it. Now, it looks so much more even. We are going into a second band because we want to see more rounding throughout his entire head and the height of his head at the crown is still abnormally high. So, we are going in the right direction! Now, there is a possibility that we won't have to spend another 12 weeks in the second band. It might be shorter than the first. Let's cross our fingers and hope for that!